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Thursday, June 28, 2012

"Clear the battlefield and let me see
All the profit of our victory" -Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Tarkus

After the Supreme Court ruling today on the Affordable Care Act -- aka ObamaCare -- the Democrats and Obama are feeling their collective oats, claiming a huge victory over the American people. While many expected a narrow decision of 5-4, most were predicting that Justice Kennedy would be the swing vote siding with the right-leaning majority. No one expected what happened in the final ruling.

When the dust had cleared and it was learned that Chief Justice John Roberts had tipped the scales in Obama's favor, virtually everyone was stunned. Twitter was instantly ablaze with tweets from giddy Democrats eager to jam their fingers in the eyes of the bill's opponents. (Patrick Gaspard, Executive Director of the Democratic National Committee [DNC], gracefully tweeted, "It's Constitutional. B*tches!") What a guy.

From Today's Drudge Report

Drudge had a picture of Roberts up on his page within minutes, and it portrayed a smiling Chief Justice applauding. I'm not clear on Drudge's intent with the picture, but I took an immediate message away from it. Roberts' smile is dripping with mischief, seemingly asking, "Happy now?".

Yes, Supreme Court Justices are supposed to be neutral in all decisions, but how many times has the SCOTUS been publicly scolded by the Chief Executive at a State of the Union Address? Once, for those keeping score. I would wager that -- for the most part -- Justices are measured in their temperament when deciding on the Constitution, but it must also be noted that power is about payback.

To be sure, there is political peril afoot if I am correct that this was a calculated maneuver by Roberts in that if Obama should somehow win another term, the nation is doomed with this law intact. But the clarification by Roberts' opinion that the individual mandate is indeed a tax makes it all the more unlikely that Obama can survive the voters' wrath come November, to say nothing of one third of the Democrats in Congress, who also face re-election this November.

Whether knowingly or not, Mitt Romney's campaign has been handed a golden goose by the Supreme Court, and all he's got to do for the next 130 days is gather the eggs and -- more importantly -- put them on display for the electorate to see, every day. The first egg to be shown should be the fact that in 2009, Obama was vehement in his denials that the individual mandate was a new tax on the people, something he had earlier vowed would not happen. Being the largest tax hike in the history of the world, this will make George H. W. Bush's "Read my lips" failed promise seem insignificant by comparison.

Add to these woes the pledge by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor to hold a full House vote on July 11th to repeal ObamaCare, and Congressional Democrats are in quite a pickle, particularly those whose terms are on the line this year. The people are wide awake right now, and the time left until Election Day is not nearly long enough for the memories of today to fade.

The bottom line is this: when the Democrats controlled the Executive and Legislative branches, that's when they rammed this monstrosity down the throats of a decidedly unwilling populace. I, for one, remember with incredible clarity how they pranced, preened and gloated after its passage, and I'm not about to forget. We had no choice and no voice, even at the myriad town hall meetings, at which we were treated with utter contempt by our alleged "representatives".

Thanks to John Roberts and the Supreme Court, all of the legal arguments are settled and all that remains is an ultimate referendum in November. Our voice is back, folks, with a vengeance. On Election Day, we finally have a say in the fate of ObamaCare. Please use it wisely. Just think about Nancy Pelosi's hideous grin and her statement of, "We have to pass the bill so that you can, uh, find out what is in it".

Saturday, June 9, 2012

It is March 16th, 44 B.C., and Julius Caesar lies in state, dead at the hands of enemies and friends alike. In the town square, Brutus is the blazing topic of discussion, mostly from people trying desperately to explain his "alleged" betrayal of Caesar as a simple mistake.

"He was walking by with a dagger and tripped on an upturned corner of the carpet", said one senator who was present at the slaying. Another man, a dignitary named Odiferous, offered, "It was tragic, really. Brutus had just sliced pineapple and was carrying the tray with the blade out when he walked too close to His Eminence".

A third witness went so far as to blame the advanced age of Brutus, suggesting he was becoming a child again. "I don't know how many times we've scolded Brutus about running with daggers."

Silly, I know. But what of the damage control currently under way about the latest declarations of former president Bill Clinton, which are basically tantamount to the betrayal of Caesar by Brutus? It is almost embarrassing that the players who try to pass for our most adult of adults in a country of children have played out this charade in order to protect the most juvenile president this country has ever elected. Perhaps even more embarrassing is the fact Bill Clinton is subjecting himself to it all, even participating in his own flogging.

Obama and his surrogates have been busy trying to demonize Mitt Romney as an evil capitalist who sucked the life out of companies and ruined the lives of every day workers like you and me while working with Bain Capital. Obama himself has even recently iced the cake by audaciously declaring that Romney has never "worked a real job". When asked about it by a CNN host, Clinton defended Romney, saying that as a former Governor and a man with "a sterling business career", Romney was definitely qualified to be president.

Clinton spoke candidly, probably for the first time in his career, and it was not helpful in the least to Barack Obama. Now he's been tripping all over himself trying to walk back the comments, even suggesting that he had no idea they were harmful to Obama's campaign. And Clinton's own people are saying that he's basically getting senile. Clinton is allowing all of this to be said unchallenged all the while he is apologizing for his comments.

But it must be remembered that Brutus did not slay Caesar alone. There were a handful of senators who participated in the murder, and just like then, Clinton is not the only Democrat to criticize Obama's Bain strategy. Newark Mayor Cory Booker was the first to open the attacks, calling the vilification of Bain "nauseating". (Booker was also the first to fall on his sword). Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick joined in as did former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell. Are they all senile as well? How many more Democrats are out there holding the same view on the Bain attacks?

Ready for Battle

The big question, though, is whether this will deter the Obama campaign from continuing this line of attack. What's done is done, and all the apologies in the world won't change it. Romney has the ammunition in the form of sound bites and video clips, and you can bet that his team is working right now to produce effective counter ads to use against Obama.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Last night saw history made in the state of Wisconsin, as Governor Scott Walker easily won an election that could have tossed him on the small pile of governors recalled prior to yesterday. That did not happen though, because Americans have once again awakened from what was perhaps an induced slumber since 2008.

The history made was not as much as the fact that Walker survived the recall as it is that the electorate, by and large, has recognized the measures that will bankrupt them and successfully distinguished them from those that help the state prosper. History remains the station for the only two governors in American history to have been recalled; Gov. Lynn Frazier from North Dakota in 1921 and Gov. Gray Davis from California in 2003.

After watching the chaos created by Big Labor back at the beginning of Walker's term as governor, it is understandable for anyone to believe that the governor's policies were hugely unpopular in Wisconsin. But it should also be remembered that at the time -- mostly because of Big Labor -- the budget deficit was $3.6 billion and the state unemployment rate stood at nearly 9 percent. Since Walker has taken over, the deficit is gone with no additional taxes levied, and the unemployment rate is down to 6.7 percent.

Clearly, the voters in Wisconsin have seen a better direction, and have begun migrating toward it with last night's vote, perhaps signaling a genuine shift in the entire country back toward the right.

The Romney campaign needs to exploit that for all it's worth. Others in America -- those not particularly wired politically -- need to be shown the successes of other governors, like John Kasich of Ohio or Chris Christie of New Jersey, who have also righted their own ships of state, albeit with a bit more panache than Walker. Even though Walker won a recall, and therefore is actually still governor, there was doubt, so Wisconsin could be counted as the lead domino, the one that started it all.

Traditionally a Democrat state, Wisconsin just realized that Democrat policies are not fiscally responsible. The ramifications such a widespread realization would have across the nation portends ill winds for a President representative of disastrous fiscal policies -- and their results. What that means could be tremendous this November.

Republicans currently control 30 states, or 60 percent of the states. Wisconsin could prove a harbinger of defeat for further Democrat governors whose states are in dire financial straits. If people begin to wake up and realize that life could be better under a Republican leader, more states could begin falling like running dominoes.